Religion and food

The majority of the Religion S prescribed or prescribe uses specific to the Alimentation of theirs Faithful S, mainly for spiritual reasons or sometimes because of theories the dietetic ones.

Various criteria

These uses can be classified according to various criteria:

the obligation (to consume) or the prohibition. Prohibitions are more frequent than the obligations;
the obligatory force : since the simple recommendation until the inevitable regulation whose non-observance can involve the exclusion of the transgressor, even its death.
the permanence : temporary or permanent regulation;
the reason : clarify (for example commemoration of a particular event) or implicit (there is no clean justification, it is simply a rule of the membership of the religion).

These criteria also apply to the other regulations religious (vestimentary, relational, pertaining to worship, etc), but this article concentrates on the food regulations.

The most current forms of food regulations are:

of the permanent particular Diététique S (meat Halâl, food Cachère, macrobiotism, Végétarisme, Végétalisme, etc) which are distributed around the Dialectique between the pure and impure the .
of dietetic particular temporary. A certain number of Christian Churches recommend not to eat dairy produce meat nor Friday . The Catholic church made of it a requirement until the Concile Vatican II. It is a question of commemorating, by a voluntarily impoverished food, a particular event, in fact the death of the Christ.
practice of the more or less complete Fast, over more or less prolonged and regular periods, accompanied or not by food and sexual abstinence.

Food and therapeutic

Certain popular beliefs dating from old medicine made us preserve remedies by food, like the diet (consisting in nourishing the sick person only with dry bread and water, which can be in addition dangerous because more often weakens the person than the assistance to be cured), or the famous " remedies of large-mère" who are sometimes effective by effect placebo or use of therapeutic plants containing an effective active ingredient.

Ancient religions and philosophies

The Philosophe S hedonists recommended temperance. But some, such Apollonius de Tyane, recommended the vegetarianism regarding the meat as impure.

Great religions monotheists

Judaism

The Jewish food regulations are defined by the Lévitique, XI.1-9 and the Deutéronome, XIV, 3-20. Nevertheless, the rules of the cacherout (of casher , “pure”) are packed much than that.

The Judaism, according to the Lévitique (XI.1-47; to see above), indicates the following facts:

the ruminant with split shoes , Bovidae and deer tribe are allowed;
the hare is regarded as a ruminant. Prohibition extends to all the categories of rabbits. (cf the account of David fasting in the desert while a hare passes to its range);
the pig has the split shoe, but it does not ruminate. Its consumption is prohibited, like its breeding on the Ground of Israel . Some Kibboutz im which make the breeding of it did not hesitate to asphalt their grounds in order to circumvent the interdict;
Among the Poisson, i.e. the marine animals , only those with fin and scales are authorized, which excludes the Anguille S, the Crustacé S, the Coquillage S, the Homard S and crayfish S. Même the Pingouin would be regarded as an marine animal ( to check )
Among the Oiseau X, i.e. birds, only those which present a pin and do not nourish themselves animals are authorized. The wild birds, the eagle, the Orfraie and the eagle of sea, the Milan, the Autour and what is of its species, the corbel and all its species, the Autruche, the Hibou, the Mouette, the sparrowhawk, etc, are in abomination . The Chauve-souris is counted like a bird.
the mixture in some form that it is of bovine meat and milk is prohibited. The religious families have of crockery and different furnaces for lacteous products and meat products.

Moreover, one fasts for Yom Kippour and eats a special meal for the Jewish Passover: the Seder of Pessa' H , which starts with bitter grasses.

Impure animals in the Lévitique

August 1st

Beater, Snail, chameleon, Lizard, Mole, Mouse, tortoise, Weasel, rabbit, Hare, Pipe cleaner, Pig, Camel, Cuculidae, plover, Pelican, Héron, Stork, swan, Cormorant, Osprey, corbel, Lappish Owl, Owl chevêche, Falcon, bearded Gypaète, eagle, Vulture.

Additional impure animals

August 1st

Whale, Shark, Dolphin, Catfish, Eel, jellyfish, starfish, hippocampus, Squid, Pectinidae, young elm, mould, Clam, Dendrobranchiata, crayfish, Shrimp, Crawfish, Crab, Ornithorynque, Penguin, Alligator, Worm, Ant, Snake, tortoise, échidna, Hedgehog, Rat, squirrel, Cat, lynx, gecko, Cheetah, tiger, Lion, wolf, Dog, Fox, Nutcase, Bear, Joint, ass, Zebra, Kangaroo, Monkey, Gibbon, Wombat, elephant, crow, Black and white, Parrot, Cockatoo.

Christianity

The spiritual food of the Christians is the Eucharistie, a bread blesses and broken, in remembering the last meal of the Christ before her death. The bread of communion is the Manne of the Saver .

The prohibited New Testament certain foods. Indeed, in Acts of the Apostles chapter 15 verses 28 and 29 one reads there:

" Because it appeared good in the Holy Spirit and us to only impose to you of another load what is necessary, knowledge, to abstain from the meats sacrificed to the idols, blood, the choked animals, and the impudicity, things against which you will be well to hold you in guard. Adieu."

However in the Gospel of Matthieu saint, one finds this sentence: " It is not what enters the mouth which soils the man; but what leaves its mouth, here what soils the homme".

It is important to note that at the time where Jesus pronounced these words, everyone mangait to inevitably hide thus anything of what they mangaient could not soil them but are the words of the man which soil it if they are blasphématoires.

The Christianisme of the first centuries recommended to abstain from sacrificed meats . They are the sacrificed animals in the honor of the pagan gods ; this prohibition is explained easily: to eat the animal offered in sacrifice to false gods amounts taking part in the sacrifice.

The first Christians often abstained from any meat. Certain monks preserved this practice until our days. Certain Christian people kept the practice to abstain from the blood of the animals and consume meats only cooked well.

Later, in the catholisicme, it is especially about réfréner the instincts of Gourmandise. We would speak rather today “gloutonnery”, a translation righter of the Greek word would be " beuverie" who corresponds better to the concept expressed in the Bible. Whatever the word selected, excess that it indicates is one of the seven capital sins. It is not the fact in oneself of appreciating the good expensive one (good food) which is reprehensible but that to eat more than of need, without measurement: " All is allowed to me, but all is not to me utile" (Letter of Paul saint).

Catholicism

In 732, the pope Gregoire III proscribes the use of the meat of Cheval in the food (this decision is perhaps related to the crowned character of the animal at the Germanic tribes).

On the the Middle Ages, the Catholic church imposed food restrictions primarily containing Jeûne S following a precise timetable:

two days thin each week (= without meat): Wednesday and Friday. A total fast was required for the first day of the Lent, called Ash Wednesday, and the Good Friday (a collation is authorized today). One can drink.
the Fast eucharistic: days when one communie with the mass, it is interdict to eat before to have received the Communion.
cyclic fast for the Four-stroke and the Lent, which is divided into two periods: the Advent and the Lent of Easter (forty business days before Easter. This represents one duration of in general 46 days calendar. The fast is daily and permanent, except Sunday (because one does not make Lent Sunday, Sunday ). These forty days fasts refer to that of the same duration that made Jesus, reported in the Évangile S. In reaction to this prohibition, a profane festival created for itself Lent the day before, the fatty Tuesday, where the Carnaval takes place (of which one of the etymologies gives " edge vale" , " authorization to eat viande").

During the fast, it is interdict to consume nonthin food, i.e. the majority of the meats, the dairy produces, the eggs, etc). This prohibition does not relate to the fish, which thus became the dish principal par excellence Friday. The Concile Vatican II abrogea these prohibitions.

Nowadays:

the obligation to make thin during the Lent (except Sundays) remains in theory. In practice, certain people try to eat less rich, by removing for example the red meat, the confectioneries, pastry making.
In addition, various families continue by tradition to eat fish Friday; it is often also the case in the canteens.
the only still prescribed fasts are those of the Ash Wednesday and the Good Friday. The fast of the Good Friday (not meat consumption) is still followed by many people of catholic origin, even not practicing.
In addition, the fast eucharistic was brought back to one hour, which is symbolic system, knowing that in general at least 30 minutes are passed between the beginning of the mass and the communion.

Orthodoxy

; The direction of the fast: The fast is founded on a practice of the Lord in the desert (MT 4,2 and LLC 4,2) and on an answer which it made one day with his apostles. In connection with a demon that Jesus had just expelled, the disciples asked him: " Why us others, couldn't we expel it? " And Jesus answered: " This species can leave only by the prayer and the jeûne" (Mc 9,29). This last word disappeared from certain versions of the text evangelic but it always appears in the versions used for the orthodoxe liturgy. The practice of the fast is not a command in oneself but it is a means of conforming more exactly to the commands of the Lord. ; Days of fast:

two Lents (forty days before Christmas and forty days before Easter by adding to it 8 days of the Holy Week).
two other periods of fast (those of the apostles of Monday after all the saints until June 28th and of the Mother of God of 1st at August 14th).
the fast majority of Wednesdays and Fridays of the year.
the fast certain days like on September 14th, on January 5th and on August 29th.
the Church also recommends the fast eucharistic: an abstinence day before and the fast during the hours which precede the communion. After having communié, the fast is necessarily broken.

; Methods of the fast: They vary according to the people (age, health condition, presciption of the spiritual father) and according to the days of the calendar. One can distinguish seven methods from " jeûne".

meat
abstinence dairy produce
and meat abstinence wine
and dairy produce, meat abstinence fish
and oil, wine, dairy produce, meat abstinence the fast until the half day then abstinence according to method 4
the fast until the evening then abstinence according to method 4
the continuous fast several days of continuation.

Method 4 corresponds to a standard which is modulated into 3, the feastdays, and 5 the days of strict fast.

Islam

The followers abstain from Porc, regarded as impure, of alcohol because intoxication is known as to bring back the man to the dimension of the animal, and to smoke. Prohibition to drink alcohol is registered in the Coran and was done in a gradual way. One reports an episode during which a statesman of intoxication requested and deformed the Sourate that he recited at the point to say the opposite of the divine words. However, in the middle of the paradise of the Moslems runs a wine river (which enivre not), with a honey and milk, water river.

Halâl is a general term in Arab Langue which wants to say “sells by auction”, “permitted by the religion”. It is the opposite of Harâm . Although halâl (just like its opposite) can apply to any element of the life, it relates to food amongst other things. It will thus be said that to drink alcohol, to eat pig or to smoke are haram . In fact, to eat pig is allowed when it is only food available and that one is likely to die of hunger. With regard to the meat, it is necessary that it is cut the throat of by a Moslem, a Jew or a Christian, in the name of God, and is bled. There also exists of other rules, but which are not the subject always of a consensus (such as for example the character or not sells by auction to eat meat of Cheval). All that comes from the sea is considered halâl .

Religions (S) vegetarian (S)

The Buddhist Jaïns, and the hindouists are often Végétariens (the jaïna all are to it) in order to apply non-violence (Ahimsa) to any form of life. It is however not an absolute regulation, except in the Jaïnisme where non-violence is the ideal founder and fundamental of its systems metaphysics and moral. In the same way the Rastafaris prefer a food vegetarian, without that being any dogma.

Others

In the campaigns Taiwan eases, to eat ox was regarded as immoral because he is relative of the buffalo, essential partner of the peasant. The interdict is still respected by a minority of townsmen.

According to the tradition, the followers of the Paganisme avoid eating their animal of totem or on the contrary eat it within a ritual framework at magic ends or at the time of a festivity.

References

Kitchen
Religion
Fast

External bonds

Solomon Reinach, food prohibitions and the mosaic law, Worships, Myths and Religions, Volume II, ED. Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1906, pp. 12-17.
Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh, food interdicts At the Jews, Christians and the Moslems
Anthropology off Food Re-examined of social analysis of the food facts. Special folder Religion and food .

Zh-min-nan: Bô chheng-kì E tōng-bu̍t

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